The Same Sky
by xxXRUDEXxx
Summary: Reno goes exploring and finds himself getting mixed up in the worlds from Kingdom Hearts while his worrying friends search for him he enjoys what he thinks to be a well earned holiday. Yaoi, kinda, incident in the first chapter...
1. Reno sandwiches

Reno Sandwiches

"Goddamit!" screamed Reno slamming his cup of coffee onto Rude's desk and emptying half the contents.

"Morning Reno," sighed his partner as he slid his stationery and papers away from the spilt coffee. "Why are you so happy today?" continued the Turk.

"Coz there's never anything to do around here bald and I hate being stuck inside with crappy paper work, it sucks.

"I wouldn't be so sure there's nothing to do you know," said Rude at an attempt to find something that would make Reno simmer down a little. The redhead stared at Rude confusedly and before he could say anything Rude answered the question that he knew was about to come from Reno's mouth. "Just go see Tseng, and I told you nothing." The Turk left the room smirking and looking temporarily contented at the idea that he might be 'on to something' while the bald man finished off his coffee.

* * *

"Sup Mr. Tseng" Reno sarcastically saluted his superior and not at all to Tseng's surprise as he casually entered his office.

"Can I help you with something Reno?" replied his superior appearing to have simply ignored the redhead's disrespectful attitude towards him.

"Well kinda, is there some kind of secret mission goin' down that nobody's telling me about."

Tseng replied as he watched Reno curiously rifle through the possessions on his desk. The simplest things seemed to amuse him. "Why would you ask that Reno?"

"It's just that well, I dunno really, just thought there might be something to do around here by now that's all." Reno lifted a purple pen out of a desk tidy, and shook its purple feathers in front of Tseng's eyes.

"It was a gift," Tseng said sternly eyeing Reno's smiling lips.

"Whatever," coughed Reno.

"Oh yes, well I suppose I might as well tell you now. It's just a small case of investigation work, there have been sightings of a strange airship landing. Nothing like anyone's ever seen before. I'm sending Elena and Rude over to the chocobo farming area to check it out."

"What? A chance to get out of this dump to go see the pretty chocobos, why didn't you tell me?" The redhead's position slumped and he stood moody, looking like a child about to enter a dentist's surgery or having just being told he couldn't go to his best friend's slumber party.

"I didn't inform you Reno because it's just a simple mission and probably nothing at all and we don't need it turning into anything unnecessary, like last week." The Turk raised the tone of his voice, questioning Reno's ability to actually remember what happened.

"You're still on that?" said Reno trying to piece together all that he could in his mind of last week's mission. "Dude you really have to learn to let stuff like that go." The redhead flicked his long hair to the side out of his eyes. "Besides, I had had a few."

Tseng simply rolled his eyes at the Turk stood in front of him. "Talk to Rude and Elena, see if you can't convince one of them to switch with you."

Reno saluted his boss once again with a cheesy grin and then left the office. Tseng just hoped that one of the other Turks would be willing to stay behind tomorrow. Anything for a quieter life.

* * *

"Hey baldie!" shouted Reno. The Turk slowly raised his head as his noisy partner entered the room, signalling for him to continue. "How come you didn't tell me there was a mission on?"

"Because it probably wouldn't even last more than a few hours and remember,"

"Don't Rude! I've already had that from Tseng!" Reno shoved his arms into the pockets of his jacket and stood there shooting evils at Rude, as if it was an attempt to scare him.

"Reno, you put the guy in hospital,"

"But Bald!"

"For 3 days Reno, we have enemies now that we didn't have before that."

"He looked suspicious," the defensive tension in the Turk's voice grew.

"Sitting In a café, reading a menu. Yes Reno… very suspicious."

"Shuddup you stupid bald man!" screamed Reno trying to think of something to justify what he did, but he couldn't. So he did what he always did at times like this, lost for words. He changed the subject. "So you think 'Lena will switch with me or what?"

"I'll switch instead," said Rude, "you and Elena go."

"Can't wait to tell her the great news tomorrow."

"She'll love it."

* * *

"What?" came Elena's voice from the other end of the corridor, "with Reno, but what about Rude? Sir I was looking forward to that."

"I know but honestly Elena it's just easier to give him what he wants, I'm sure you can understand." Tseng sat in his office chair with his usual morning coffee preparing himself for another strenuous day's work.

"Morning ladies, been talking bout me much as I made my way here? I know it's hard to resist." Reno sang his way into the room, grinning idiotically at his boss before leaning on Elena's shoulder.

"Two hours time Reno, understood?"

"Yeah sure thing Tseng," replied the redhead reaching over for the cup on Tseng's desk. "Needs more sugar, and milk, and sugar" he continued after taking a sip.

Before Elena could even greet Reno he was off again, "Well I'm gonna go see my bestest baldest buddy now, later."

As he left the office thoughts circled Elena's head, 'Was he on drugs?' and 'what the hell is up with him?' and she was ever so slightly nervous about their mission. Not the task itself, that was easy, but because of the hyper state of mind Reno appeared to be in.

"Hey Rude," the redhead skipped into his partners office seeming to have an unusually happy aura around him.

"Reno," replied the Turk hesitantly noticing what his partner was holding. "What's that?"

"I maded you a sammich baldie," Reno answered. He walked over to the desk with a smile crossing his face and set the plate down in front of Rude.

"Why?" asked his partner. With a great interest he slowly moved his hand towards the sandwich to examine it.

"I thought you might be hungry, I'm being nice." The look on the Turk's face appeared to be genuinely sincere. Rude wasn't entirely sure that the thing he was about to put near his face wasn't about to explode but he didn't want to hurt his partner's feeling either. "I cut it into bite sized bits for you too," Reno said this in a voice so much more high pitched that his normal one that it was almost adorable and Rude unfortunately found it hard to refuse.

"What's in if first?" Rude already knew he was going to have the sandwich but he decided it was probably still safer to ask anyway.

"It's a Reno special sammich!" his friend stood grinning childishly. "Cheeses, hams, lots of layers and stuff." He kept on grinning and waited for Rude to start eating.

"You gonna watch?" asked the bald man about to take a bite.

"Nah, I'll be back in about 30minutes to an hour baldie… enjoy" replied Reno waving as he left the room.

* * *

About three quarters of an hour later Reno strolled happily into Rude's office where his partner was going through some paperwork from a couple of days before. "Hey…partner," he said shutting the door behind him.

"Hey," Rude was slightly confused by the tone of Reno's voice as he came in but even more so by the worrying expression on his face.

"Was it tasty Rude?"

"…yes… thank you Reno."

"Good," the redhead closed in on his partner, "eat it all?"

"Yeah, I did."

"Sweet," the Turk continued to move closer to Rude and then stood at the back of his desk chair. At this point Rude knew there was something not quite right about Reno. "How ya doing big guy?" He put his arms around Rude's neck as he whispered to him.

"Reno, what are you doing?" asked Rude feeling uncomfortable with the idea of what he thought Reno was doing going through his mind.

"What's the matter Rude? You tense?" Reno had no intention of letting his partner answer any of these questions, he had his plan set. "Just relax Rudie."

Rude had never thought of Reno as the shy type when it came to delicate situations, and what he was about to do just reconfirmed it all. He watched his partner as he came around to the other side of the chair, pushing it away from the desk and back against the wall near a window.

"Reno…" Rude raised his voice slightly and Reno lowered his head to look the Turk in the eye but just carried on like he hadn't heard him, let alone understood him. He leaned in and kissed Rude on the lips taking him totally by surprise. Reno had messed about with him before joking, mostly when he was drunk. But he had never kissed Rude like this before.

"Reno," Rude said after his friend pulled away.

"Shh," the redhead pushed two of his fingers up against Rude's lips. "Please don't tell me to stop Rude."

The bald man was becoming more and more uncomfortable because of the situation and was gripping tighter to the arms or his chair by the second. Reno knelt down in front of Rude and unzipped his trousers to touch him. Rude didn't quite know what to say or do because of his disbelief about his predicament but mostly because of the Reno that was attached to him. He knew he shouldn't like this, but he did. Of course he did, anyone would.

"Rude you're so, well I guess it's true what they say about bald guys," Reno laughed that cocky laugh that was filled with self satisfaction. "Do you like that Rude?" This really didn't help Rude's resistance to what Reno was doing. But surely if he really did want Reno to stop, he would have made him by now. Though he tried to ignore it, he couldn't. He tried to control himself, but he really couldn't. "Oh, I guess that's a yes."

As soon as he had spoke the redhead jumped up and ran out of the room, leaving Rude in a very awkward situation. Rude was angry, frustrated and hard, but mostly angry. He hadn't been this mad at his partner before, and couldn't believe what he'd just done to him. He pulled himself back over to sit at his desk, and after putting his head in his hands shouted his partners name as loud as he could before trying to calm himself down.

"Hey Elena, you ready? lets go" Reno came running into the room, only just stopping before running into the sofa where Elena was sitting having just put down a magazine onto her lap.

"Hey was that Rude just now?" Reno grabbed the blond by the shoulder, pulling her up and off the sofa. "Reno?"

"No time, I'll explain later. We've got work to do Elena or have you forgotten reading your magazines!" Elena opened her mouth to speak but instead of making a legible sound she found herself being dragged down the hallway by Reno. Apparently he'd taken charge, and Elena was sure that the fun was about to begin some time soon.

* * *

**A/N: **Well I hope you liked it so far, please review and let me know what you thought.


	2. Chocobos

Chocobos

"So apparently Reno we no longer report to our boss before leaving on missions."

The two Turks had been walking for a little while now in order to get to the area in which Tseng had ordered their search but Elena had only just broke the silence. The redheaded Turk just ignored her and carried on walking through the grassy area, headed for the chocobo farm.

"Hey Reno, are you even listening to me?"

"Lemme ask you a question 'Lena," Reno turned around to face the blond. "Why are you walking through all this wet grass when there's a perfectly good dirt track that leads directly up to the barn?"

"I was following you," was the simple reply.

"So are you saying that I'm in charge?" Reno could see how she had hesitated a little before answering him. Maybe she was trying to be smart because she knew he was about to try and make her look stupid…nah.

"Well… I suppose," Elena muttered her answer to the devious looking Turk. "Yes I am Reno, any wrong decision no matter how trivial is entirely down to you." Her voice filled with assertion.

"In that case shut up, don't try to be smart that's my job and do exactly as your boss tells you." He found himself grinning as he turned around. He loved messing with Elena, watching her reactions and was pretty confident that she knew he was just messing around most of the times he did it.

It was then that Reno moved onto the dusty track and Elena took her place beside him. They weren't going to say anything else to each other until they'd reached the barn. Reno just carried on walking with a great big smirk across his face.

The smirk changed into a simple smile when the two Turks came up close to one of the pens. Reno paused for a second, turning his head.

"Want to stop so that you can pet the chocobos for a while Reno," Elena giggled.

"Don't be so immature!" Reno's defensive tone seemed to make her laughter get louder. "They're cute, I don't care what you think!" Reno felt like such a little kid as Elena's giggling quietened down but he didn't care that much he could always mess with her, and come up with better stuff than that.

Elena smiled and walked up to the barn, Reno followed on after stroking the top of one of the chocobo's heads.

After they entered the barn the two Turks began to look around them, moving their heads from ceiling to the dusty floor. "Hey look, it's chocobo Ben!" Reno laughed as he pointed to the farmer.

"It's Bill nice to meet you," replied the man smiling at Reno as if he actually recognised him. "Will you two be crossing the marshes today?"

"Sorry, we wont be needing any chocobos today," replied Elena.

"So then, how can I help you?" the man continued and Reno puzzled over what he possibly could have done to create the cheery expression on the man's face. Maybe he was just an all round happy person, but Reno just sensed that somehow it was because to him personally.

"We just wondered if you could help us with a few questions," Elena answered. Reno kept staring at the man, waiting for him to say something.

"You don't remember me do you?"

"Huh?" Reno was brought back out of his thoughts my Bill actually addressing him. The man chuckled. 'Well that can't be good', thought Reno. Whatever the reason was for the farmer smiling and clearly recognising Reno, was obviously something of amusement.

"Well you were pretty drunk by the looks of things." Elena turned and smiled at Reno as the man said this. Then he continued, "you don't remember trying to ride one of the birds backwards?" Elena giggled suddenly and a smile lit up her face.

The redhead lowered his head and mumbled a no, though he couldn't help but grin at the thought of himself doing that. "Was I with anyone?" Reno asked.

"Yes, and he apologised on your behalf."

"Well that's good then, save me a job." Reno grinned at the farmer, to show him he was joking. "Was it tall? Perhaps a little on the balding side of things?"

"That's him and don't worry about remembering because it was a long time ago."

"So how come you remember me then?" asked the Turk.

"I remember you both well and I certainly wouldn't forget hair like yours."

Reno smirked as he picked up his ponytail, letting it fall back through his fingers, "Why thank you Bill, and if it was bald that'll be good old Rude for ya." At that Reno suddenly remembered what he had done to his partner earlier in the day. He thought that he should probably apologise, whilst trying most importantly not to laugh. Elena interrupted his thoughts with a cough, that prompted the man to continue with the matter at hand.

"Oh yes, so you need to ask me a few questions?"

Elena nodded, "There's been news about a ship landing in this area, we just wanted to know what you knew about it."

"Ah yes, I first saw it 2 days ago. It's not like anything I've even seen before." Elena simply nodded. "A young lad came in here and I gave him some water, he was interested in the chocobos, much like your friend here." Reno smiled sarcastically. "He said he'd never seen creatures like it before, probably just out exploring the area if you ask me."

"Well it sounds pretty harmless, where did you say it was?"

"Not that far away at all, you'll see it clearly from the other side of the barn."

"Thanks, we'll be going then," continued Elena looking around toward the exit. "Where the hell is Reno?"

'That was too easy.' Reno thought to himself. He was satisfied with his skills allowing him to sneak away so simply without either of the other two noticing. He'd made his way round to the other side of the barn already and now see the brightly coloured airship in the distance that he was heading towards. As he walked he spoke to himself. "Silly Elena probably looking around inside the barn for me, and I'm long gone."

Reno had reached the ship in a matter of minutes and glanced at it quickly for any signs that someone was near or inside it. Seeing and hearing nothing he climbed the ladder up the side, checking quickly through the window. Then he made his way inside after forcing open the door.

Inside the ship was a narrow runway leading to the control room. On either side of the runway were several doors to the left and right and at the back of the ship a ladder lead to the lower decks. Reno thought he heard footsteps with voices getting closer to him, so without actually thinking went to hide, jumping down from the hallway to the lower deck.

It was dark and if you didn't already know where the light switch was, you'd have no chance of finding it. Reno of course didn't and the only thing he could do was plunge into the darkness with his hands out in front of him hoping they'd find and obstacles before he did. He knew that no matter who the captain was, they wouldn't take too kindly to finding a complete stranger on their ship. He made his way to the furthest corner of the room that he could find, crouched down and waited.

Reno heard faint voices but couldn't detect what they were saying to each other. He guessed there to be two or three different ones at least. He thought to himself that they'd probably be in the control room by now and thought this would be an opportunity for him to sneak out of their ship undetected.

He silently climbed back up the ladder at the same time going as fast as he could. After he reached the top he checked down the runway. He could see three figures from where he stood. They were sat in the seats in the front of the ship.

"Oh no," the redhead said to himself. He heard the ship's engine start up and the surrounding floor and walls began to vibrate. Thinking that he should probably sit somewhere safe, he headed back down the ladder to his hiding place. He'd just have to sit it out and wait till they landed again. If he really wanted to he could get the pilot to stop but he could sit and chance it. This could turn out to be quite interesting.

* * *

**A/N**: and there is chapter 2! lemme know what you thought ...


	3. Heartless

**A/N: **Yay, chapter 3. Not an extreme amount happens but Reno will be 'adventuring' in the next chapter so it'll pick up a bit. Hope ya like anywho, lemme know!

* * *

**Heartless**

"Uhh…. How much longer," the redhead groaned sitting up and ruffling his hair. They couldn't have been in the air for more than 4 hours or so, but to Reno it seemed like days. He'd just woken up from a rather uncomfortable sleep when he thought he heard the sound of the engines fade away. He was bored within the first thirty seconds and hungry too. "Oh, cool," Reno said to himself. He felt it, the ship had landed.

He waited for footsteps of the others to get louder and when they faded away again Reno made a move. Pushing open the door of the ship Reno peered out of the growing gap. There was nobody around where they had landed so Reno went for it. He pushed the door fully open and fell to the ground after jumping from the step.

As his feet landed on the hard ground he realised that he was on the edge of a small town. Wanting to explore the place Reno headed up some concrete steps, turning a corner. On doing this Reno found himself surrounded by small black creatures coming up to just below his knees. The Turk pulled out his EMR and began to swing for the creatures. The first he struck he appeared to completely miss but Reno was certain that he'd hit the thing.

What the hell was going on? The Turk kept swinging his EMR but the creatures just kept on coming at him. His anger continued to grow as his weapon just went straight through the things that were increasingly coming from nowhere.

"Focus!" Reno looked up from where the voice had come from. It was a man perhaps a few years older than him he thought. He had black hair and carried large sword and was looking down at Reno from the steps he stood upon. "Look into your target; it takes more than physical strength to kill heartless!" The man quickly made his way over to Reno who was still fighting the creatures. He hadn't a clue when the stranger meant by what he had said.

"Come on, I said focus!" The man kept on shouting, making Reno angry but at the creatures. Reno stared at the shadowy being in front of him and almost felt sorry for it. It wasn't big, not really threatening at all and in a sense it appeared fragile and helpless. "Do it!" came another shout. The redhead stared deep into the glowing yellow eyes staring back up at him. He took his anger and aimed for hitting through his target… almost targeting inside the thing.

Reno swung his EMR and this time he felt an impact, the creature was pushed backwards and he hit again. The tiny thing just faded away before him… disappearing into nothing. By the time a third creature had been defeated Reno noticed that the stranger had already taken care of the rest. This man had also taken care of the things a lot quicker than Reno had.

"You're not Reno by any chance are you?" The man lowered his blade as he said this hesitantly.

"Who wants to know?" The redhead was quite curious as to how this complete stranger had guessed who he was quite easily. He didn't want to let on that he was right though and he was trying to think of a time he could have met this person before.

The noise that he heard as a reply indicated that this man was just as reluctant to give out any information as Reno. In situations like this Reno decided to turn to something he'd found quite reliable at times, sarcasm. "How many belts can one person need?" The Turk carried on, not giving him time to answer though it didn't appear that he was going to. He smiled. "Though I must say I love your necklace, it goes with your eyes and the fur collar really suits you."

"Follow me." It angered Reno slightly that he didn't get more of a reaction from the fellow. He was almost certain though that he caught a glimpse of a smirk just before the man started to walk away. It was for this reason and the fact that he wanted some food that Reno followed him. "And it's Leon."

Reno didn't really like the feeling of being a sheep, he felt like a tourist except his 'guide' was more silent. He was lead up stone steps to begin with from where he'd first came across Leon which he later found out to be called the Bailey. As they passed through an alley way more of these apparently 'heartless' creatures showed up and his guide took care of them like it was an everyday thing for him. Coming out of the alleyway the redhead saw the first sign of residence in the town, he'd guessed, that he now found himself in.

Yet again walking into a square more creatures appeared but these ones different. They were shaped like books and were flying. One of Reno's fears was very similar and he'd had a nightmare quite like it. He swung at one of them with his EMR and like the shadow like heartless it disappeared.

"Come on," said Leon. He opened a door to a house across the square and Reno stepped inside.

"No way!" Reno shouted upon sight of an old acquaintance.

"Reno, how'd you get here?" came a familiar and surprised voice.

"I was gonna ask you the same ninja." Reno realised that this was going to be the time for explanation.

"Long story but short it's down to Cid and hey I asked you a question." Yuffie raised her usually loud voice and this indicated to Reno that he should probably just tell the truth.

He explained how he innocently snuck on board of the ship and hid from it's pilots. He told them how he had just found himself here and that was when he bumped into Leon.

"I'm sorry to interrupt but is this fellow an old friend of yours?" A man in a wizard hat butted in at that moment. Reno realised then that he wasn't among completely unfamiliar company. He was a little confused about the elderly gentleman dressed in what appeared to be his pyjamas but the redhead noticed that the people there he knew were Yuffie, Aerith and Cid.

"Hmm," the group looked at each other, "I suppose you could say that," said Yuffie.

"Yeah come on! I've helped you out at times!" Reno raised his voice.

"Sora, Donald and Goofy are back?" The girl in the pink dress stepped forward to join the conversation.

"Yeah, they must be." The ninja continued in her uplifting tone smiling at Reno not completely dismissing what he had said.

"You and the Turk come straight here?" said Cid.

Leon nodded as he replied, "I caught him struggling to fight heartless down in the bailey, those three must have gone to the restoration site or the market."

"Hey!" Reno shouted trying to stand up for himself but then failed to say anything else. "So there was three of them?"

"Yeah and you'll have to talk to them about getting you back to Midgar Reno."

"Hey I'm in no rush, I deserve a vacation for all my hard work." The Turk could see the amused look on Yuffie's face and could feel himself giving her evils without helping it. He smirked. "What's there to do around here and more importantly where can I get something to eat?"

"Why don't' you visit some of the worlds?" The ninja's suggestion seemed like it could be fun, even though Reno didn't really have a clue what 'worlds' she was talking about. He figured he'd need a ship of his own.

"Say, Cid…"

"I'll see what I can do for ya." Reno thought that his persuasion was a little too easy. There'd got to be a catch to Cid lending him a ship.

"Wont you have friends looking for you Reno?"

"I'm not too sure," he said looking at Aerith as he trailed off. He remembered what he had done to Rude before he left and how mad Elena would be at him for ditching her. Tseng of course would be angry without question. Reno leaving like that really wasn't necessary and he wasn't sure why he did it. He figured he might as well enjoy his own little adventure as they'd catch up with him soon enough. He was doing them a favour by giving them something to do, he thought.

* * *

"Thanks Elena," said Tseng. The blond Turk had just explained all that she knew about Reno running off on their mission. "Can you send Rude in here please." Elena hadn't been back long but she'd detected Rude's anger.

"Yes sir, I'll tell him you wish to talk to him."

"Thank you, looks like Reno has caused him a little upset. I will try to get him to explain to me what actually happened. It seems things will start to pick up around here."

"Sir."


	4. Claws and a furry Reno

**A/N: **Yay Chapter 4! Sorry for the slowness of my updating... school work and such. But Woo christmas holidays! Anyway, this chapter is for my friend Reno who came up with a lot of the idea for this one. So credit to: Reno-xxxXXXxxx YAY! Hope you like it.

* * *

Claws and a furry Reno

"Cid, do you trust that Turk with your Gummi ship?" This was the next morning, a few minutes after Cid had shown Reno the ship. Aerith asked the pilot what he was thinking after he'd returned.

"Yeah what's the deal, he's sure to trash it," the ninja added.

"We know what happens when you go into other worlds. The Turk doesn't, it'll be worth it." The pilot turned to Leon who smiled and then in turn to Yuffie, who grinned.

* * *

Forwards, back, up, down, stop and go. Reno had the very basic controls on the Gummi ship and when Cid asked him if he could drive the thing, this is what Reno thought he meant. He wasn't at all sure about navigation or what the flashing lights meant. He didn't know what the screen in front of him represented or what any of the smaller buttons and levers were for. But to Reno, none of this really seemed all that important.

Where the hell was he going? Reno didn't know. Reno didn't much care either. Was he really paying any attention to the navigation system? Of course, Reno wasn't. Reno's plan was going the way he guessed it would. He drove around a bit and paid no attention to where he was going. Then he noticed somewhere to land. It was the first place he'd spotted. Well, it was the first time he'd looked out properly.

Reno breathed a sigh of contentment as he felt the ship touch the dusty ground where he had landed. As he stepped out of the door and down the ladder Reno took a look around. It was dusty… rocky… not much in sight at all. Reno would search for a clearing and go from there.

As his feet touched the ground, Reno thought himself much smaller than he remembered.

"Whoa…!" He looked down at his feet to discover that they weren't feet at all. They were paws. "What the hell?" He guessed he was a dog at first but he didn't really examine himself that much at first. Freaked out by it, Reno started to run surprisingly easily given his new circumstances.

He hadn't a clue where he was going, but he eventually headed up a rocky slope to what appeared to be a cave. 'Somewhere to calm down… try and figure out what the hell's going on.." Reno thought to himself. He was quite wrong.

As he slowed himself coming into the cave Reno shuddered. He heard the most incredible roar coming from behind him. He didn't just hear it. He felt it. It moved his… fur.

He turned slowly in the darkness to see the hazy outline of a lion. The thing that stood out to Reno was the whiteness of it's long, sharp looking teeth. The Turk backed slowly toward the light of the entry of the cave. When he was sure he was fairly close to his means of escape Reno turned away from the lion and ran.

Hundreds of lions and lionesses were there to greet Reno as he sprinted past them. They were all snarling and roaring as Reno flew past. He was actually quite scared. Usually Reno was usually cocky, confident and could handle most any situation. But here he was in a different place, there were different rules and he was even in a different body. The thing he couldn't quite understand though was that if they were animals… and he was an animal, what had he done to them?

Reno ran down the slope and rushed past his ship. He didn't look back but he just concentrated on what was ahead of him. He could hear pounding of lions' paws moving the dusty ground behind him. That kept him running.

Very quickly he came to a dark track and the sounds behind him had stopped. Reno could stop too if he wanted but he wasn't going to do that until he had somewhere to hide. At least for a little while. He looked above and around him as he walked on. He was surrounded by bones. Huge skeletons towered above him. He turned all round to look as he moved in his random direction.

After a few minutes of this, the Turk began to hear whispers. He'd detect a sound and then turn toward where it came from. As soon as me turned there'd come another. Whatever this thing was, there was more than one.

Then came growling and snickering. Whatever these creatures were they were getting a sense of Reno's anticipation. The Turk made out faint whispers from the strangers. Though he still could not see the faces to these voices.

"Seen him before?"

"No. He's on our territory." This was followed by what Reno could only describe as giggling insanity or plain stupidity.

"Let's get him."

A grey blur fell to the floor in front of him, landing and showing it's teeth. It was a hyena and Reno was in no mood to try and fight with it. It looked vicious and he didn't know whether his knew found anatomy would let him deal with it.

He spun around to sprint but he found worse luck. Two more hyenas of equal size to the other were ready for him. Reno had no other choice, he had to fight.

The Turk leaped off his back two legs and went for the animal's neck. He sank his teeth in, refusing to let go as he felt the other hyena's claw go deep into his back. He threw his claws around the hyena, biting down harder in attempt to make the others give in.

One of the two from behind him pierced what would be the top of his left shoulder. At this point Reno turned and with a right arm he swung catching the creature in the eye with his claws. The creature backed off and Reno took his chance. He let his grip go, turned and ran after forcing his way out of the grasp of the other hyena. He left them panting, in pain and like him, running in the other direction.

He made his way back up the dirty track and out of the giant graveyard. Limping, he realised that at some point one of them must have bit the top of his right hind leg. This must have happened sometime during the parts that he could actually remember distinctly. He was bleeding and in pain.

He wanted to get back to the ship but there was something stopping him. Somehow, these animals could talk, they were intelligent. The world, he realised, was a lot more different than his own than he first thought. He suspected that the lions would have spotted the ship and connected that with him. Reno decided to go another way. They could be waiting for him.

There was only one other way he could go. He made his way slowly down a winding, dried up track. This track soon turned into small jungle. Then Reno was back in the sunlight. It was an oasis. On the edge of a cliff there was grass and trees and closer to the forest; a small pool with a waterfall.

The Turk climbed up to the pool, washing himself under the cool water. It eased his pain a little.

He turned around suddenly as he heard a high pitched squeal. There was nothing to be seen except a small object scurrying across the floor leaving a trail of dust. He couldn't make out what the thing was but he took it as not something to worry about. It was probably just a mouse or something.

"Timon, you're right." This time came a louder voice from the same direction.

"Get rid of it Pumbaa!"

Reno stared at the two frightened looking beings in front of him. It was a meercat standing on top of a warthog… talking about him. It was time to speak up.

"Look," the warthog edged back from Reno as he spoke. The meercat he guessed to be called Timon shrieked again. "I don't wanna hurt you. The truth is I'm kinda lost. I just got chunks bitten outta me from those dumb hyenas, I don't wanna be sat on by a warthog too while your little friend scratches my eyes out."

The pair turned around. Like they were coming to a verdict. Reno waited patiently.

"Who the hell are you?"

"My name's Reno." The two paused again and seemed to be thinking hard about something.

"Well… he doesn't look like any of the others," came a whisper.

"Look, I came here on this ship thing and then I changed right?" Pumbaa and Timon seemed to find this amusing. "And.. And I don't have a clue where I am, people started chasing me and the next thing I know I'm a hyena all you can eat!"

"Look into the pool Reno," the meercat shouted.

"He sounds a little like you when his voice is high pitched." Reno heard the pig say as he turned to look in the water, pouting. He was very sure that he did not have a high pitched voice. Even if he was worked up.

"I'm a fucking hyena!" There is was. His reflection was staring back at him, but it wasn't him at all. "Why am I a hyena? I should be a leopard or cheetah or something good."

"Maybe it suits your personality," said the warthog.

"At least it's one less thing off you mind," continued Timon.

"Oh yeah, and hey, how come you guys can talk?"

"How come you can talk?"

The little meercat had just managed to get Reno with nothing to say back. He didn't like it and he'd just noticed that he had a little patch of red hair.

"What do you guys eat round here? Pig?" The Turk grinned as widely as he could to reveal his teeth. He looked deep into Pumbaa's eyes.

The warthog shuddered and Reno smirked. "He's kidding buddy," said Timon, patting his friend lightly on the top of his head.

"How can you tell?" The pig still looked a little anxious.

"I aint sure Pumba, there's just something about him," Timon whispered now "and besides… he's injured."

"Come on Reno, I hope you're not too fussy."

"So long as it aint vegetables." Reno followed the pig and the meercat back through the jungle.

After a little while they had began to slow and there was nothing there but foliage.

"Here we are." The pig squealed as his feet came to a stop.

"You eat trees?" Reno asked.

Timon walked over to a dried up log and surprisingly lifted it with his tiny hands. It shocked Reno to see a creature so small do that.

"Only the finest cuisine," said Timon. He picked up a handful of worms and insects that were wriggling in his palm. "Try a crunchy one!"

Reno lifted a paw to grab a wriggling bug from Timon's hand. Just as he stretched out his leg he heard a shout.

"Slimy!" Pumbaa stepped forward, taking a grub and slurping it down like spaghetti.

"Crunchy!" Timon interrupted, forcing his hand toward Reno.

The two repeated their arguments over and over again. Reno was in the middle of the two and the argument became focused around him. After a while the shouting stopped and the two looked in Reno's eyes. It was like they were waiting for him to make a decision for him. He reached out once again and took some insects in his claws. He stared at a yellow, orange cockroach wriggling on the end of one claw and a blue worm squirming on the end of another.

He ate the two in turn with Pumbaa and Timon looking up at him eagerly. They each grinned at him as he ate the insect they favoured.

"It's gotta be crunchy." Stated Reno, finally. He could see the looks on their faces. Timon's expression was a pleased one because Reno should side with him. Pumbaa's was more annoyed looking. "You know, me and Rude never could agree on food either."

"Who's that?" Asked Pumbaa.

"He's my best friend and ever so slightly more healthy than me. But I beat him on the hair front."

"Huh," said Timon.

"He's bald." Reno laughed.

"Pumbaa's getting a bald patch."

Timon and Reno laughed together and Pumbaa sat on the ground with quite an annoyed looking slouch.

"Looks like we got more in common than we first thought," said Reno. "Anyway, I'm still hungry." He sat on his back legs by the log an threw a grub toward Pumbaa, who happily accepted it. Reno himself was sticking to the crunchier insects, swallowing several at a time.

"You really aint fussy are ya?" Timon said walking over.

"Nope!" Reno answered.


	5. Lanky Bones

**Lanky Bones**

Reno stretched out his limbs with a huge yawn. He lay on his back in the hot sun with a warthog and a meercat either side of him. This was a first. However, this being the oddest situation he would wake to find himself in, there was no question of: 'What the hell was I drinking last night?'

As he lay there, he wondered if his friends would be searching for him. And if not, what were they up to right now?

* * *

"Tseng, we couldn't find a thing."

"Rude, Elena." The Turk sitting at his desk nodded a good morning.

"Sir, we've asked around… he's long gone." Rude added a nod to the blond Turk's report. Her voice was full of panic.

"Please, Elena wont you calm down. This is Reno after all."

"But that ship could have taken him anywhere."

"It's fine Elena. Rude.."

"Sir."

"Have you talked to any of the Avalanche group?"

"No Sir, that was my next suggestion."

"Find Tifa Lockhart, see what she knows about this ship. Then try Cid, Cloud, I don't have to tell you."

The two Turks nodded toward their boss, Elena still looking slightly nervous. As they left the office headed to their next point of call she turned to Rude. "How come you don't seem more concerned Rude, he's your partner and he's missing. Are you still angry with him?"

The bald Turk simply shook his head.

"Then why? He is your best friend."

Rude laughed and smiled slightly. "Simple Elena. It's because I know him."

* * *

"So you're moving on now Reno?" Timon looked up at Reno with puppy dog eyes. He wondered how many time he'd used this to get what he wanted. "You haven't been here long at all."

"I know but I want to see all different places… I can come back." He was finding it difficult to say the right words. The animal looked genuinely disappointed that Reno was leaving soon. He felt weird. He'd only just met the pair, but he felt like he'd bonded with them, especially Timon. But he reassured himself that it was probably because everyone else in Pride Lands, he'd found out from Timon, had tried to kill him.

"Hey, why don't you come with me?"

Timon and Pumbaa looked at each other and to Reno the answer was obvious.

"Sorry man, we really have to stay." Timon said.

"You should come back though Reno, we'll make sure everybody knows who you are first."

"Pumbaa almost ended up as a pig roast for those hyenas." Timon laughed. Reno grinned again at the warthog, showing his teeth.

Pumbaa retaliated. "They didn't want me but you dancing in the hula skirt."

"Pumbaa!" Timon was clearly embarrassed as he looked away from Reno. "C'mon Reno wouldn't you ever put yourself in a hula skirt to help out a friend?"

Reno thought for a moment about how to answer. He simply smiled at Timon and didn't ask about why it was necessary for him to cross dress to help his friend. Reno was pretty confident though that a situation would have to be pretty serious for him to dance around half naked in a grass skirt.

The threesome walked back through the jungle and across the dusty space toward Reno's ship. This time there were no hyenas waiting to snack on Reno's lanky physique. Neither were there angry lions waiting to pounce on the Turk.

Despite everything, Reno would kind of miss being a hyena. It was mostly because of the friends he'd met. But he already missed his hair.

"So I guess this is it guys." Said Reno looking over at the ship.

"Remember what we told ya, Hakuna Matata ok?" Timon and Pumbaa looked up at him, smiling.

"Oh yeah, keep the past in your ass." Reno smirked. He saw the expression on Timon's face, a kind of joking disappointment. "Or something like that huh."

"Any idea where you'll go next?" Inquired the warthog.

"Not a clue."

"Why don't you go visit Santa?" Timon shouted.

"Yeah right coz he's real." Reno's voice took a sadness. It was easy to see in his eyes.

"Go to Halloween town, it aint too far from here… you'll be surprised how real he is."

Reno still didn't believe it. He didn't when he was a kid and he wasn't going to start at the age of twenty six. He'd be the one when he was younger telling the other kids that the fat man was just a story. Because if he was real, to Reno he was just someone who'd let him down.

But who knows? Maybe he was real. So far in this new universe he'd seen some pretty weird and wonderful things.

"So Halloween town?"

"Yeah, looks kinda like a giant pumpkin from far."

"Right…"

"Come back Reno, and bring your friend." Said the warthog.

"Bye Guys."

"Yeah later Reno!" The meercat shouted.

Timon and Pumbaa stood in the distance waving to Reno as he stepped away. He used his paws to pull himself up the ladder and back into the airship. A few moments after his feet were lifted from the ground he felt a change in himself.

Within a few seconds he'd fully changed back. Strange wasn't the word for describing the feeling. His body was bruised and still cut like before. On looking in the mirror in the ship he could see no other damage than his hair being slightly scruffier than usual.

He walked over to the controls and cracked all of his joints that he could make crack before sitting down. As he started up the ship and watched marks on the land getting smaller and further away he thought. The overall experience hadn't been that bad. So what if he'd been hunted down for lion's lunch and ripped apart by retarded hyenas? He'd tasted new cuisine that reminded him of his childhood of eating things that crawl. He'd made some pretty cool friends out of it too.

Once again he was travelling much too recklessly through space. He was paying very little attention to where he was going too. All he seemed to notice was shapes and colours that passed him, no technical detail. He just spun around for a while like he was playing a space invaders game or something. On the search for a giant pumpkin which would apparently take him to Santa Claus.

He eventually reached Halloween town. The ship hit the floor and Reno wondered if he'd change in this world too. Halloween…. Reno imagined himself as a wolf maybe, a zombie, or a vampire?

A vampire. Just like the last world this one had changed him. It wasn't so drastic though and not really all that different from his Turk uniform. Well, nothing would be drastic compared to a hyena. His shirt was slightly more ripped and he was wearing a heavy, almost floor length coat. He even had the fangs to top it all off. But no lust for blood, it was only a costume.

How did this happen? Reno had no idea. Obviously in these worlds there was a different kind of magic to what he was used to messing around with. He didn't really care how it happened, it didn't bother him. He could only get a glimpse at his clothes and couldn't see his face. But from what he saw, he thought he looked pretty sexy. He could get used to this vampire thing.

Wait. What day was it anyway? Reno had no idea, he'd missed Christmas definitely. That sucks, they'd all still be pissed, Elena for ditching her, Tseng for general running away and Rude for…. Yeah. They probably wouldn't have gotten him anything at all. He'd caused everyone a lot unnecessary and annoying things to do but why break the habit of a lifetime? He thought about doing something, making it up to them.

He made his way through a graveyard with tall leaning headstones towering over him. Reno wasn't one to get scared of things like this, didn't believe in childish ghost stories but he'd have to admit that he jumped a little.

"What the… heartless?" That's the thing that first came to mind. They appeared just as the last types had but this time they were white, glowing, and came toward him form the air. Reno swung at them with his EMR and quite proudly defeated them without much struggle.

Reno's pace picked up as he pushed open a tall gate and stepped into a square. For a moment he let his childish side take over. He didn't get excited about Christmas, it escaped his mind as he'd missed it but the thought of actually seeing the real Santa Claus was different.

Well, this was Halloween town alright. There was a guillotine in the main square and a fountain that was violently spilling out glowing green liquid.

"Well hello there !"

"Huh?" Reno turned round to see a pale, lanky figure in black…. Rather like…

"I'm Jack Skellington, king of Halloween town, it's nice to meet you."

Reno looked closer to realise that the man standing in front of him was actually just bones. It wasn't a costume. This was followed by a rather unexaggerated thought. 'Oh, must be a local.'

"Hey, I'm Reno." The Turk put his hand out, just out of interest. His now much paler hand was left to greet 5 spindly fingers.

"Not meaning to be rude Reno but what brings you here." There was a huge grin on the skeleton's rounded face. Not creepy despite his dark eyes and bright white teeth, but cheerful and warm. Reno bet however that this man could probably be terrifying if he wanted to be.

"I was told to come through here if I wanted to see Santa Claus." Jack's smile grew wider at the mention of this name.

"I can take you to him, he's a friend of mine." Reno's disbelief of this being real was slowly fading away. Was he really going to meet a fictional character from stories that he'd heard as a child? Jack whistled loudly making Reno slightly confused. He took out his EMR quickly and readied himself for what looked like a heartless coming toward him and his host.

"Stop, it's just Zero." Reno lowered his weapon. "He can help us with a little more light going through the forest.

"Sorry," replied the Turk. Perhaps he was a little on edge. "Just like Rudolph," he murmured to himself.

"Exactly!" Jack said. He sounded quite excited. Maybe a little too excited. "I just need to tell a few people where I'm off to and then we can go. Are you ready?"


	6. Christmas Town

Christmas Town

Reno waited in the square with the ghost of a dead dog while he waited for Jack. The dog, Zero just floated around Reno at shoulder height and it looked just like a puppy. His nose was glowing bright red and made a big impression in the darkness.

"We can set off now, if you're ready." Jack said to Reno, as cheerful as ever.

"Yeah sure." Reno replied and after he did this Jack whistled to the dog who took it's place in front of them.

"Zero knows the way, as do I. It wont take long to get there."

"It's ok, I'm in no rush." Said Reno.

They walked on behind Zero and pretty quickly Reno found himself back in the graveyard. Not to his surprise now they met more heartless and Reno wiped a few out with his EMR. Jack took care of the few he encountered with magic.

They walked through the graveyard and into the edge of a dark forest. There were ghost like heartless, disappearing and appearing at random all around them. These were joined by heatless like plants, fixed in the ground where they appeared shooting seeds at the Turk and Jack. The forest was dark, the trees were tall and if it wasn't for Zero it would be difficult for Reno to see his hand held out in front of him.

"Stupid heartless!" Reno shouted and swung his EMR around in all directions hitting the heartless. "Now they're just annoying." Like Reno, Jack was also fighting the heartless that got in their way.

When the forest was clear Jack's pace slowed and consequently so did Reno's.

"This is it," said Jack smiling.

"It's a dead end…" challenged Reno who was slightly confused. Jack laughed and walked over to one of the larger trees in the forest and Zero followed him. The red glow from the dog's nose revealed to Reno an emblem on the bark in the shape of a Christmas tree. Jack pulled on something that from Reno's distance looked like a golden bauble on the tree but was in fact a door handle.

As the door was opened a gust of cool wind filled the area around them. It was full of glistening dust like snowflakes twirling in the air.

"Jack, you just… opened a tree."

"Yes and we're going to go inside it." He replied, his voice growing more cheerful.

"To Christmas land, right?" Reno didn't bother to try and hide the sarcasm in his voice. It didn't seem to bother the skeleton. He'd love it to be true. Go through a shiny tree and pop magically into a world of Santa Claus and snow. Even after his transformation in the Pride Lands and the talking creatures, Reno still had his doubts.

"Yes, to Christmas Town." Jack replied simply and smiling. He turned away from Reno and shouted back, " Just follow me." The skeleton lifted one of his lanky legs over the hole in the bark which was followed by the other. With a slight jump, he disappeared from Reno's sight and down the hole.

Reno stepped up to the trunk of the tree and peered into the opening. The strings of swirling ice seemed to go on for as far down as he could see. The redhead lifted his arms and took hold of the bark. He lifted himself, swung inside the tree trunk and let himself just drop.

He felt himself falling, but this kind of falling was different. He felt almost weightless as he fell with his eyes closed. The fall quickly turned into a fast drop onto a cold, wet floor.

"Ahh, Reno, I was wondering what kept you."

The redhead looked up at Jack. "Yeah I was just checking it out first."

"And you're perfectly fine," he smiled.

"Yeah, except my ass tingles because it's so cold down here." Jack held out a bony hand in Reno's direction. "Thanks." The redhead said as he stood with Jack's help.

"Now to go see Sandy Claws!" Jack shouted cheerfully as he turned to face down the snowy hill they were standing on.

Reno followed on behind Jack and caught him up quite quickly. His heavy boots fell deep into the snow. At first all the Turk could see towards the vanishing point were brightly coloured lights. There were oranges, greens, reds and yellows. It was quite a contrast to the dark woods he'd just come from.

As he and Jack got closer Reno saw that the lights were coming from small houses set out in rows. In between the rows was a carousel slowly turning itself and the lights coming from it reflected off the white ground. Reno said nothing, he simply stared and took it all in. Everything around him brought out his inner child. He'd have to bring the others here. No matter how old they all were, they'd have to love this place.

"Well, this is it!" Jack turned his head and smiled at Reno.

Reno knew from that that they were there, about to meet Santa Claus. The five year old inside him raced to the surface and his face lit up. But Reno was a grown-up, (although some would argue otherwise.) He was supposed to be mature and calm. Not wanting to embarrass himself just yet, even though Jack did seem quite excited himself, Reno simply nodded in Jack's direction; gesturing for him to go on.

The man took a few steps up to the door and tapped on it with his bony knuckles. Reno waited impatiently but tried to appear as patient as possible. The redhead started to fiddle with his own fingers. This wasn't unusual for Reno as he was usually messing around with something at work, usually irritating someone with whatever it was. This time though is was more because of excitement and impatience.

There were muffled sounds coming from behind the door as Reno waited 'patiently' in the snow. Orange light shone through the red frame of the door. As Reno looked up after the sounds a shadowy figure appeared in this light.

The man who opened the door was just like Reno pictured he'd be. He had a fluffy white beard, round pink cheeks and wore a bright red suit. Compared to Reno and Jack the man's already circular physique appeared a lot more spherical. There seemed to be some kind of aura around the man, like he automatically produced a happy feeling in the air.

"Jack, how are you?" His voice completely matched his appearance. Exactly how Reno had imagined it as a child. It's funny how much his childish image matched the real thing. It was cheerful and warm.

"Great!" Replied the skeleton.

"And who is this?" The portly man looked up at Reno. The redhead felt like a kid again. He felt slightly nervous and for some reason he cared deeply about the impression he was giving off at that moment. Well it wasn't like he was any ordinary man, it was Santa Claus, he was important.

"Ahh yes, I brought a friend along who wanted to meet you." Answered Jack.

Santa looked up at Reno again inviting him to introduce himself.

"Name's Reno, Santa Claus, Sir." The man chuckled at this whilst Jack turned to Reno and smiled.

"Come on in," said the man still laughing. Reno felt a little foolish now. Maybe it was his over formality that the stout man had found amusing. That had certainly never been a problem for the Turk before.

They stepped inside the man's home, both Reno and Jack finding it necessary to duck under the doorway first. The place was brightly coloured and small, but it was cosy not crowded.

The front room had a sofa on which Reno and Jack sat down. Their host sat across the room in a bright red arm chair. Between them was a coffee table and to the left an open fireplace. It was so warm inside compared to out in the snow. Reno loved sitting by real fire, it reminded him of his favourite holiday, apart from Christmas of course.

The redhead felt so at home. It was so warm inside compared to out in that snow. He'd be able to sit watching the flames for hours ready to drift off to sleep in front of it. He'd always been fascinated by the way things burn. But he wasn't going to allow himself to get distracted, he'd been thinking a lot on the way over and had come to a decision.

"Excuse me, Santa." Reno heard himself trying to be all polite. It just didn't sound right at all. The man looked over at the young Turk smiling, awaiting his continuation. "Yeah… I wondered if you'd be able to do me a favour."

"Oh… what kind of favour Reno?" The man didn't sound anxious at all. In Reno's opinion he seemed quite happy to find out more about it.

"Well, I think we can make some sort of deal…"

* * *

**A/N: **Yeah, this story didn't just dissappear into nothing, it still exists. Though I haven't updated it in ages. I've been doing lots of little bits of this chapter for a while and have only just managed to actually finish it and get it up! Reason is a combination of school work and my apparent genreal slowness at everything I do. I know it's kinda random to have a Christmas chapter in May but I wanted to do it and there will be another lol I hope you liked this chapter anyway, continue to read and please review if you wish! Thanks :)


	7. Burning Sand

**Burning Sand**

"Tseng!" Elena quickly stepped into the Turk's office followed slowly by Rude.

Their boss lifted his head up from what he was doing and looked at the two other Turks. "Yes Elena," he said in a much calmer tone than the blonde woman.

"We've found him Sir." Elena continued at a quick pace, not giving Tseng much time to say anything else. Tseng merely nodded as she carried on. "Well not exactly found him, we haven't seen him but we know where he is… sort of." She paused for a moment and Rude stepped in.

"We spoke to Tifa Lockhart who got in contact with Cid Highwind. He's seen Reno and knows where we can find him. It's complicated Sir but with his help we can get there."

There was a confused look on their superior's face, then a sigh as he spoke. "What do you mean complicated, where is he?" His voice sped up, getting louder.

"In this kind of other world, Sir," the blonde answered.

"Go on," said the dark haired man.

Elena's face showed her struggle for words. "We don't really know all that much about it."

"A few of Avalanche spend regular time over there, we need to travel by airship Sir and we also need Highwind to navigate," Rude finished.

"Alright then, there's no point in wasting time. I believe I can trust the two of you with this. Leave as soon as you can." Tseng said confidently, sounding a lot happier that he had done previously.

"Sir." The two remaining Turks nodded and left the office.

* * *

"Where the hell am I…." After making his 'deal' with Santa Claus Reno had said goodbye to Jack and headed off again in the borrowed ship. He was fairly happy about his deal although it meant a sacrifice on Reno's part. He felt good for doing it though.

"Man it's hot, maybe I'll get a tan or something," said the redhead to himself as he stepped onto the sand. "Nah…I doubt it."

Reno had only just noticed, a few moments after stepping out of the ship that his outfit had not been affected by this world. It was to his disappointment though. It was extremely hot and Reno was sweating. It was intensified by the fact that he'd just spent time in Christmas Town.

The redhead exhaled heavily in the heat and blew the hair hanging over his eyes temporarily out of his face. He turned back around to face the ship and took off his jacket, throwing it through the entrance. Then he undid his shirt buttons all the way to the bottom, leaving it on so that his shoulders didn't burn. Then he unbuttoned, unzipped and let his trousers fall to the floor.

He perched himself on the step leading up to the airship and struggled to pull the ends of his trousers over his boots. Taking his boots off first would just have been all too easy.

After removing his trousers and throwing them into the airship Reno took a proper look around. In front of him was a great stone wall with huge wooden doors and behind him was a vast boiling desert.

He felt his heavy boots push into the sand as he headed toward the doors. The place gave the impression of a fort from the outside, Reno only hoped that he wouldn't have to do any more fighting. He pulled at the ring hanging on one of the doors and lifted the latch. The ease of opening the door shortly put Reno's mind at rest, the people inside couldn't have been that protective. Or perhaps it was handing out a false sense of security. Still Reno carried on and pulled open the door.

Through the doors it was quiet. There were market stalls with baskets and pots. It was weird, like it was too quiet. Then out of the corner of his eye, something huge appeared.

"Heartless?" Reno questioned to himself. The thing was huge and circular but it had a similar appearance to the other heartless Reno had come across. "Big fat ass heartless."

The Turk rung and swung at it as hard as he could but with great force his EMR was forced back in his direction. "What the?" Reno backed off a little, not being able to inflict damage.

All of a sudden a burst of flames came bursting out through it's huge mouth. Reno instantly dropped to the floor, avoiding the fire. He could feel from just the heat over his back when the flames had died down and once they did Reno stood again. The heartless began to turn and Reno struck at all angles he could. "Nobody - burns - Reno!" He shouted in between each strike. When Reno struck the heartless from behind it took damage. Using all his strength the thing, just like the smaller ones, faded into nothing.

"Man I'm hungry." Reno looked around at the market stalls for some food. He lifted up the lids of baskets only in disappointment to find fresh fruit underneath. That was at first at least. He moved on, only at the very extreme would Reno lower himself to voluntarily eating fruit.

Lifting another basket on another kart he found different types of nuts and raisins. He grabbed a handful of nuts but they weren't really salty enough for Reno. Once again he quickly moved on whilst at the same time checking around for any owners of the stalls that could be watching him. He continued to search through the stalls until he found something that he could funnily enough eat a hell of a lot of.

"Sweet, salmon." Reno grabbed a handful, shoving it into his mouth. "Awesome, it's been smoked." Reno was actually starving, more so now that he'd had a taste of some food. He grabbed the whole bowl and sat on the sand under one of the stalls in the shade. It didn't take him long to finish what was left in the bottom of the bowl.

A combination of the hot sun and his lunch had made Reno slightly sleepy. He lay back on the cooler sand with nobody around and the heartless taken care of and quite easily fell to sleep.

* * *

"I can't believe we actually found him, we really ought to thank Cid properly." Came Elena's voice.

"I can't believe he's asleep." Rude replied with slight amusement in his voice.

"Shall we wake him nicely or not?" Elena asked, smiling.

"I'll go find a bucket of cold water." Rude said.

The two Turks stood in the blistering heat staring at the little Turk lying peacefully in the shade. He looked so sweet when he was asleep, just like a child. But how nice it would have been to wake him up abruptly. A little payback perhaps, for both of them.

"Hey Rude can you move please coz the sun off your bald head is shining in my eyes and it's woken me up!" Reno said not even being able to keep a serious tone of voice throughout the whole of the sentence.

The redhead sat up, yawned and rubbed his eyes. Rude merely stared at his childish friend, resisting a laugh with difficulty. "Sup Laney, Rude."

"Reno! How can you be so…so." Elena's voice was raised.

"What?" Reno knew full well this would aggravate Elena further. He couldn't help it though, he was too relaxed and still a little sleepy.

"We've been looking for you! We've had Highwind use his ship to track you down. You left me at the Chocobo farm and after what you did to Rude." She paused. Rude adjusted his posture awkwardly and raised a hand to his mouth only to lower it again. "How can you be so casual."

"Elena what were we doing?" Reno carried on just as Elena opened her mouth to speak. "Well I'll tell you Elena, we were investigating an airship yes?"

"Yeah but.." Reno cut her off again. Rude stood with his arms folded. This conversation would no doubt in Reno making some cocky, over complicated an unnecessary excuse.

"Well I investigated that ship did I not?" The redhead gave no time for answers. "Yes I did and I found an entire other world Elena! What did you do huh? Plus I gave you two something interesting to do."

"Shut up Reno." Reno knew she hated doing that but he could always outsmart her, leaving her with nothing else to say."

Rude however knew Reno. "You didn't know you were going to find another world, that was a fluke. And you owe me an apology."

"I knew full well bald man. And both of you will get an apology, I promise."

Reno put his weight on his hands and pushed himself up to stand. Rude's expression was fine but Elena still looked a little irritated.

"You can apologise now Reno!"

"You can't just demand an apology, it's not the same as actually getting one."

"Reno!" Elena raised her voice and it was clear she was increasingly losing her temper.

"Elena, stay here I need to talk to Reno." Rude interrupted and walked off around the corner, Reno following him.

"Reno, just lay off her ok? What you did would annoy anyone." He said when they were a fair distance away from the blonde Turk.

"Rude, how come you aren't as mad, I thought you'd be really pissed." The redhead didn't look Rude in the eyes but simply lowered his head.

"Well you said you'd apologise and you don't break promises do you Reno?" The redhead shook his head. Rude looked down at his smaller partner. "Come on, let's get outta here."

"Yeah." Said Reno cheerfully.

The two Turks headed back through the market place as Rude asked, "Hey Reno, why are you half naked?"

"You shouldn't be looking' Rude." The redhead laughed and Rude just shook his head with a smile. "Are you not slightly hot? Well, I suppose you do have no hair."

As they came back into the market place the two stopped simultaneously, noticing it was empty. Their fellow Turk gone.

"Ah crap, where the hell's Elena?"

* * *

**A/N: **It's finally up! WOO! A little shorter than the last chapter, I hope you found it funny. Let me know what you think!


	8. Meeting Royalty

Meeting Royalty

"She won't have gone far right?" Said Rude sounding a little unsure himself.

"Don't count on it Rude," replied Reno putting his pants back on. He stood up and looked around the marketplace. "Man it's too hot to go running around looking for Elena."

"And we didn't have to go looking for you?" Rude stood with his arms folded staring at his partner. The tension in his voice was enough to get the message across to Reno.

Once again there was a feeling or guilt that crossed Reno's mind. Sighing, he said "come on, let's go find her."

They must have walked for no longer than half an hour among the market place and through the bazaar but the heat made it seem at least three times as long. Just walking over the hot sand and finding no company. The place was deserted. With no sign of Elena the two said less and less to each other. They weren't as eager to suggest which direction to try next as it was becoming clear that the blonde was further away than they'd first thought.

"So what now? She ain't here Rude." Reno said raising his voice toward the end.

The bald Turk didn't answer at first and the redhead felt the heat on his back. The pressure was getting to him.

"What about those huge gates we passed? There's nobody around the market, maybe there's someone inside." Rude suggested.

"Yeah, sounds like a plan bald man." Reno replied sounding a little more enthused than before.

The two Turks continued to walk in the burning heat, returning to the place they'd remembered seeing the gates. They towered high above them ensuring that whatever was behind them was well and truly protected.

"What do you reckon's through there anyway?" Asked the redhead walking right up to the gates.

"Dunno, whoever they are they wanna keep things out. We know that for sure." Answered Rude.

"Or in… I hope it's not heartless." Reno said to himself quietly.

"Heartless?" Said Rude questioningly.

"Yeah long story, you'll know if you see one." Reno could have explained but he thought it'd be more fun for Rude to discover the heartless for himself. Reno stepped up to the gates and grabbed hold of the brass rings, turning them outwards with his arms. He then leaned against the door, all his weight on his shoulders. Rude could see Reno's boots slipping in the sand.

"Need a hand?" Rude said amusedly.

"Nope I got it," said Reno struggling. He readjusted himself and forced his weight back onto the left gate. "Ok, it's stuck."

"Move over kid." Rude stepped up and Reno moved aside. With one heavy kick against the door Rude pushed it quite a way open. Reno stood with his arms folded feeling a little moody.

"No need for violence Rude," he said pouting.

"Help me push." Rude replied smirking. Both doubled over with four hands on the door, the two Turks managed to move it aside fully.

Stepping through the large entrance the two Turks were surprised to see that everything was quiet. There were no guards, no residents and fortunately there were no heartless. Much to Reno's happiness as he felt it too hot to fight anything and the door had taken more energy from him than he would have liked to give.

They found themselves standing in a large courtyard surrounded by large walls. In front of them stood the doors to a large palace. The building was white a looked like quite a step up from the dusty market place they had just came from.

"Well nobody's tried to kill us yet, wonder if anyone's home." Said Reno casually.

"Don't know." Rude turned around to face where they'd come in. Presumably, Reno thought, to check for anything behind them.

The pair continued to walk toward the palace, confident in the fact that there were no traps set out for intruders and that nobody was lurking waiting to attack. Still they both continued to look around them as they got closer and closer to the palace.

Their attention was brought straight ahead as a woman came running out of the front doors. She was dressed in turquoise with her long dark hair tied behind her back . Reno thought to himself that she didn't look very threatening at all but you can never be too careful.

"Look out Rude, they've sent an assassin, " he whispered into his partner's ear smirking.

"Reno…" Rude sighed.

Then the woman began to speak. "Are you alright?" She asked you two Turks in an up beat and very high pitched voice. She sounded genuine enough though in Reno's opinion.

"Yeah, sorry if we're like, intruding or anything." Said Reno awkwardly in attempt of being polite. The woman smiled widely and shook her head.

"We've lost our friend, we're trying to find her." Rude added, stepping in quickly.

"Oh, well what does she look like?" The woman looked unusually worried when Rude told her about Elena. Her voice was filled with concern.

"She has short blonde hair, brown eyes and she'll be dressed like us." Reno said. "Oh yeah and she'll probably have an irritated expression on her face, that's Elena for ya!" He added with a grin on his face.

"Well I can go ask everyone in the palace for you, have you searched all of the market place?"

"Yeah," Reno answered, "unless there's anywhere we don't know about… she's not there."

"Alright then, well come inside for a while. I can ask everyone in the palace if they've seen you're friend."

The two Turks followed the woman who had invited them inside. It came as a bit of a shock to Reno how helpful she was being. He couldn't help thinking however that this person could be the only hope of finding Elena. So for that reason he'd try to be as polite as possible. Hopefully she wouldn't be far at all and it'd all be alright. But Reno's guilt was building up… none of this would have happened if it wasn't for him.

They were shown into a smaller room with two large sofa's covered in brightly covered cushions and satin throws.

"Please," said the woman extending her arm, "make yourselves at home, I'll go and find my father." As she was about to leave she added with a smile "I'm princess Jasmine by the way."

She wasn't gone all that long. In the mean time Reno and Rude sat on either sofa to begin with but it didn't take long for the redhead to lay back with his arms and legs stretched out.

A few minutes after Jasmine had left to find her father Reno lifted up his head to look over at Rude. His partner was sitting upright, his feet flat on the floor and his back perfectly straight.

"Hey baldie lighten up, she said make yourself at home."

Rude simply coughed in the way that he usually did and rearranged himself ever so slightly on the sofa.

"Ahh Rude," Reno sighed gently. "Always so stiff." He knew it was kind of a harsh thing to say but he just couldn't help it. He saw it though he was sure. Rude turned his head away from his partner and towards the entrance of the room. But before he did, Reno could have swore he saw a smirk on Rude's face.

Reno smiled and resumed his position on the sofa. This was only to be interrupted a few moments later as princess Jasmine returned with a young man with her.

"This is Aladdin, my fiance. I bumped into him just after speaking with my father. I'm afraid to say that nobody here has seen your friend." Reno sat up to listen to the princess talk and Rude just remained as he was.

"So she's not in the palace… and we couldn't find her out there…" Reno began to let his voice drop as he sighed. He looked over at Rude who had his head in his hands for a few moments before looking seriously over at Reno.

"I can take another look around for you, there are places you might have missed. Secluded areas that not everyone knows about." The young man called Aladdin gave one last attempt to raise the hope of finding Elena.

"Thanks," said Rude.

"Yeah thanks," added Reno.

"There's one thing though that you may want to know." Aladdin's tone of voice was more serious now, he didn't sound as enthusiastic as he'd just been. "Jasmine," the princess turned her head. "Can you tell them?"

"Of course," she answered nodding her head.

"I'm going to get some of the palace guards to help me search around." Aladdin smiled and left the two curious and anxious Turks with Jasmine. All that ran through Reno's head now was the question: _'tell us what?' _and_ 'It's not going to be more bad news… surely.' _

The young woman sat down next to Rude and opposite Reno. She turned in her seat so that she could be facing both of them. She began to tell her story, "A couple days ago something was stolen from the palace."

Reno got all of a sudden slightly confused. "What does that have to do with Elena? What was stolen?"

"Well it might not have anything to do with your friend but if we can't find her at all…" Jasmine's voice filled with hesitation before she lowered her head and stopped what she was saying. Rude coughed and the princess looked up again. "Let me explain." She began again.

"There was a man that lived in the palace called Jafar. He turned out to be evil and tried to take over the kingdom for himself. Being royal advisor to my father put him in a very manipulative position. He played with my father's mind but there was something he used." She paused for a moment.

"What was it?" Rude asked.

"He used a sceptre that he always carried with him. The top was a snake's head and the eyes glowed bright red. That's what was stolen."

"So you think this Jafar guy's back or what?" asked Reno, hoping that this really didn't have anything to do with Elena.

"No. Jafar has been defeated, he can't ever come back." Jasmine sounded very certain of that which was reassuring for Reno and he could see the same for Rude. "But then that's just the thing, we don't know who could have taken it."

Reno could sense that what she was about to say wasn't going to be very good news at all. Rude shot a serious look over at the redheaded Turk.

"If you put it all together, mind control and a possible kidnap… it doesn't sound good. I hate to be the one to say this but worst case scenario, your friend could be in danger."

"So this person could have complete control over anyone he wanted?" Rude asked.

Jasmine nodded. "I don't know how it works but yes."

"I hope she's alright," Reno sighed.

"We'll help you all that we can." Jasmine said a bit hesitant to go on. Reno began to think there was even more bad news coming. "There's also a cave of wonders, it's filled with treasure but disappeared after Jafar was defeated. He wanted everything in it for himself but I don't know if our thief knows anything about that."

All three of them sat in silence for a while. Reno was taking in all the information he'd just received in quite a short space of time. By the look on Rude's face Reno was sure his partner was doing the same.

The best thing that could happen right now would be for Aladdin to come back and say he'd found Elena. Reno had his doubts before but now he thought there was no chance at all that things could be that simple.

So all he could do was sit and wait for an answer to know what to do next. And in the mean time he couldn't help assume the worst.

Aladdin walked into the room and looked straight at Jasmine. "Hey."

"Hey." Came the reply.

The look in the man's eyes was all the answer that Reno needed.

* * *

**A/N: **I hope you liked that chaper. Haven't had an internet connection in a while so I've only just got this up. I purposely made it longer because I haven't updated in a while. It'd be cool to know what you thought of it.


	9. Underwater Tension

**A/N: **Ok this chapter is a lot longer that I first intended and for some reason I didn't get half as far as I wanted to by the end of it. I really don't have a clue how that happened. It'd be nice to see what you make to this, I hope you like it! **

* * *

**

**Underwater Tension**

"Great," the redhead repeated for the third time since they'd set off. "This is just fantastic." Rude gave a very loud sigh. Reno could tell that he was irritating his partner quite a bit but he didn't care. He was irritated himself.

"Reno, it's your own fault." Rude said simply as always.

"Yeah don't remind me," Reno answered, sighing.

He couldn't have felt much worse so far as guilt went. It was his fault that Elena was missing and in danger for all they knew. Now they had the task of finding her in a place they knew little about and among worlds they didn't know the location of either. All Reno wanted to do was find her, make it up to everyone and the go home.

Of course if it was up to him they'd stay and explore their location as much as they could. But Reno had a suspicion that after finding Elena there'd be little chance of that. So in that respect he didn't really want to find her at all, he'd probably just be shouted at. Of course, he knew Rude wouldn't let that happen.

"Do you know where we're going?" Asked his partner sounding a little doubtful.

"Not really, if I see a place we'll stop, how's that?" Reno felt as laid back as ever. There was something in the back of his mind telling him that he should probably be a little more concerned about the situation. But he just wasn't. He found it difficult to be serious about anything and it was even harder to feel a sense of worry.

Rude just shook his head forcefully in an obvious disbelief in what Reno had just said to him.

Reno looked away from where he was steering the ship for a moment and turned to his partner and replied. "Well go on then genius what else am I supposed to do?"

"There's nothing else we can do now." Rude's voice was growing more and more irritated.

"Not really." Reno really didn't wasn't to fall out with Rude as well as having lost a fellow Turk. "Hang on a minute, how'd you find me?"

"We told you before, Highwind tracked the ship he lent you. Then he dropped us there."

"Yeah but how'd you find him, he's here?" Reno was slightly confused and paying no attention to where he was now flying.

"Tifa Lockhart managed to contact him for us."

"You went to see big boobs? Any excuse eh Rude?" Before Rude could defend himself in any way Reno had carried on talking with a smirk on his face. "And that reminds me, we should probably contact Tseng. Where's your PHS?"

Rude laughed quickly and sarcastically as Reno watched the unnerving smirk form on his partner's face. This immediately made Reno think. 'Oh no… what now?' But Rude began to answer that question before Reno could get any actual words out.

"Now there's a thing Reno." Rude usually addressed Reno by his name when he was irritated. "Wouldn't that have been the easiest way to find you?" The tension among his partner's words slowly increased. "But where -was- yours Reno?" The redhead knew better than to actually try answer that question. "After calling it several times we eventually found it down the side of a sofa."

"Oh… yeah." Reno said quietly. Then he remembered something else about it.

"And yes Reno the screen is still cracked. You can't see it at all." It was as if Rude had read his mind. The redhead just remained silent. "Tseng's taken it to be repaired. There were a few buttons missing too."

Reno couldn't begin to remember how any of those things had happened. Nothing stuck in his mind as to how his PHS could have go to be in such a terrible condition. Then he remembered that Rude hadn't actually answered his original question.

"Well what about yours?" He asked.

"You mean the one that you dropped in the toilet?" Rude didn't sound very pleased at all.

"Haha, oh yeah." Reno laughed and grinned idiotically. Rude gave him an angry glare and Reno stopped. His partner clearly didn't find it as amusing as Reno was finding it.

"So we have no way of contacting anyone. Elena's the only one who has a PHS that works." Rude continued. "Unless we can find Cid somehow."

It sounded like Rude was directing that to Reno as a question more than just a thought.

"I'm sorry Rude, I don't remember my way back to wherever he was… or what it was called either."

"So I guess, fly around until we find… anywhere then?"

"Sorry Rude," said Reno nodding.

* * *

A couple minutes passed and since Reno hadn't been paying much attention to where he'd been flying, the two Turks could be just about anywhere. There was a tension in the cabin of the airship as Reno and Rude said nothing to each other. Reno made the odd tapping noise and made popping sounds with his lips to try and raise the atmosphere a little. All Reno could do was wait to see something. Once they got there they'd just ask about Elena, have a look around and if they didn't find anything move on whilst trying to find out where in the world they were.

It was made worse by the fact that in Reno's eyes it didn't matter what direction at all they went in now. So he just stuck to a virtually straight line, making the airship pretty much took care of itself.

He sighed heavily, leaning his head to one side in his seat. "How much longer?" he said aloud.

"Uhh Reno…" Rude muttered.

"Yuh," Reno said turning to Rude. His words tended to lose their effort when he was bore.

"Look straight ahead." He continued simply.

"I can't see anything." Reno replied, staring into the vast blackness.

"Seriously?" Rude sounded slightly shocked. "An oval shape, in the distance."

"Nope." Reno shook his head and carried on flying.

"You need to get your eyes tested, when we get back."

"I don't need glasses!" Reno raised his voice. How dare Rude even suggest such a thing?

His partner smirked. "I think you'd be adorable."

"Shut it you bald person." Reno had to admit that probably wasn't the best comeback he'd ever come up with. He decided not to face Rude and be childish. He turned around and pouted, staring out of the window as determined as he could. "Ooh! I see something, it's getting bigger."

"We're getting closer kid."

"Yes Rude." Reno said in an annoyed, childish way. Reno sped up to get to whatever it was faster. And also to prove some kind of point to Rude.

They'd finally come to another world but it appeared strange to Reno. It was like a huge shell and what was enclosed was beyond Reno's guess. Landing in this world wasn't anything like the others Reno had visited. He didn't land as such, he was pulled. There was a huge gravity around the area that took hold of the airship. All Reno could feel was the sensation of being pulled toward something with great speed. Everything was a blur and he could tell, although he didn't know how it was possible, that he was outside the airship.

"Rude?" Reno looked around him in all directions. His vision was slightly blurred and his head felt slightly unbalanced.

"Yeah?" Rude didn't sound too stable either. Reno looked at his partner for a moments, giving his body time to settle.

"You ok?" Reno asked his partner. Rude simply nodded. "What the hell was that?"

"Very high gravity?" Rude suggested.

Reno laughed. "Yeah… right."

_'What the..?' _Reno wasn't quite sure why he hadn't actually noticed but Rude was naked. And…._'oh no… there's no way!' _Maybe it was the adrenaline of being flung out of the airship at great speed and pulled through space into another gravity but for some reason Reno just hadn't noticed before.

"Rude look!" Reno freaked out, his voice was extremely loud and unusually high pitched.

"What?" Rude sounded somewhat calm given Reno's lack of control at that moment.

"Dude, you're naked and … well…" Reno struggled with how to word this. It was a delicate thing to have to tell someone. "Just look south ok Rude? And be prepared for a shock."

Rude did so with an extremely confused look on his face. As his gaze moved down his body Reno watched as his look turned from confusion, so shock and finally to sheer terror.

"Oh no…"

"Rude?" Reno said very carefully. He felt very concerned about how Rude would react to this. But then Reno realised something, Rude was shaking his head. He was also no longer looking at himself but at Reno's legs.

"Shit!! Rude!!" Reno panicked and started thrusting the lower half of his body. He turned around and spun out of control. He was so confused, what was going on?

"Reno." Rude tried to get his partner's attention. The redhead continued to freak out, going round and around Rude in circles. "Reno! Calm down" Rude raised his voice which finally got Reno's attention. "Stay still."

Reno stopped in front of Rude who put his hands on the redhead's naked shoulders. This made a feeling of calm instantly wash over Reno. He took a deep breath.

"I have a tail Rude," Reno said quite calmly. "I have a tail."

"It's more like a fin really." Said Rude correcting him.

"We're under water aren't we partner?" Reno asked the bald man looking up to see him nod slowly. "Why aren't we dead?"

"This world obviously changed us to adapt to it's atmosphere." Rude paused for a moment looking around him in amazement. "Has this happened anywhere else?"

Of course. It was obvious now, Reno should have expected it as perfectly normal with the way things had previously gone in other worlds. "Well I've been a hyena put it that way. I had a pretty interesting conversation with a meerkat and a warthog so just prepare yourself for talking fish Rude."

"Huh?" Reno half expected to hear that from his partner, but he didn't have time to explain the whole thing.

"I'll tell you another time, how's that?" Rude nodded at Reno's suggestion. "Now, where are we?"

Reno took a look around him, turning around in circles. They were both floating in the middle of quite a large cave. The walls were covered in brightly coloured plants and tiny shells that reflected light. It wasn't dark at all where they were. Light was beaming from the gap in the middle where the rocks met at the top of the cave. Reno guessed that this was where they must have entered before being shot through the water at high speed.

"Lost?" His partner sensibly suggested. Reno stuck his tongue out. "Nice fin by the way." Rude smirked.

Reno all of a sudden got quite self conscious. "What's wrong with it?"

"Nothing, it's nice." Replied Rude simply.

"It's turquoise," Reno said with a huge childish grin on his face.

"Very nice Reno." Rude said still smirking slightly.

"Well it's better than yours!" Reno shouted in defence. Rude remained silent but didn't break eye contact with Reno. "What is it Rude pink?"

Rude took a look down and Reno waited for an answer. "It's dark purple."

"Ooh… manly!" Reno put on the most camp voice he could as he flicked his tail at the tip.

"Yes Reno, you looked very manly doing that." Once again Reno did nothing but childishly stick his tongue out. "And mine's bigger than yours."

"Well… you are bigger than me Rude." Said Reno, trying not to smirk but of course his immaturity got the better of him. "Besides, it's not size, it's how you use it Rude."

"Oh yeah?" His partner replied smirking himself now.

Reno nodded, his look turned more serious now. "Wanna race partner?"

"Go on then, kid." Rude always used kid when he was trying to patronise Reno, the redhead had caught on to that one.

"Ready?" The redhead asked.

Rude said nothing and just stared at his partner looking slightly confused.

"Go!" Reno screamed and shot off leaving Rude shocked.

Reno raced forward, thrusting what used to be or felt like his leg muscles as fast as he can. He heard Rude shout his name as he gained on the redhead. It was then that Reno realised, he'd no idea where he was going… at all.


	10. Swim This Way

**Swim This Way**

Reno was racing forward through the sea with no idea where he was going. Rude chased the redhead gaining on him quite easily. For every five strokes Reno seemed to make, the larger Turk only made about two.

He sped on and without looking where he was going, then turned around to see how far behind Rude was. "Come on baldie, you're too slow," but Rude seemed to be slowing on purpose. Reno turned back smugly and shot forward. Launching himself head first into a huge rock.

"Ouch," sighed the redhead as he peeled his face from the surface of the rock.

Reno nodded at Rude with a frown on his face. That really hurt. "Couldn't apply the brakes quick enough Rude."

"I noticed," said Rude laughing. He'd made a joke, so Reno was fine.

"Ahh," Reno groaned and rubbed his nose. Then he noticed the change of expression on his partner's face, which made him question, "what Rude? I'm not bleeding am I?"

Rude shook his head, "turn around Reno." The Turk whispered.

Reno turned around and just beyond the rock, was a woman. Well not a woman but a mermaid. She floated before them, her bright green fin moving gently from side to side. She wore a purple bikini top made from two identical seashells and her bright red hair came down past her waist.

She smiled at the two Turks as she approached them slowly. Getting closer, she opened her mouth to greet them. "Hey," her voice was sweet and cheerful.

"Uh hi," said Reno smirking. He felt pretty pleased with meeting this young mermaid. He looked her up and down. She was very beautiful in his opinion. Her hair was the same colour as his only brighter and shinier. And her eyes were just the same. He felt as if he'd met the female version of himself. (Outer appearances anyway.) And Rude had always said that Reno would marry himself if given half the chance.

"I'm Ariel," she continued, looking at Rude now. Probably because he hadn't actually said anything yet.

"I'm Rude," the larger Turk finally said to the young woman.

"Reno." Replied the redheaded Turk. "So you're like a mermaid… that's really awesome."

Rude shook his head as he listened to his partner. Ariel laughed and smiling she answered the Turk. "Yes… you are too though, a merman I mean." Now Reno understood the strange look on the girl's face. He'd kind of stated the obvious so he thought he'd better explain. However, Rude beat him to it.

"We're from another world, it's a bit of a shock to see ourselves like this."

The redheaded girl's face lit up instantly. "You're from the outside world? You mean you're a human?"

"Uhh yeah…" Reno said sarcastically as Rude simultaneously gave her a polite nod.

"It must be amazing to live outside the water huh?" She seemed so enthusiastic, Reno found it quite strange, they were only human. He thought that being a merman was pretty exciting once he'd gotten used to it.

"It's alright," Reno smirked and turned to Rude who was also smiling.

"And I bet it's great to run around and have 2 legs instead of a fin." She looked down at herself, swished her tail and frowned.

"Oh yeah… there's a lot more than just legs where this fin is darlin'" Reno said cockily.

Ariel blushed at Reno and then smiled at Rude who just rolled his eyes. He shook his head at his partner.

"So, not meaning to be rude but, why are you down here?" The mermaid said awkwardly.

"We're looking for our friend, we think she's been…kidnapped." Said Rude turning the conversation into one a lot more serious now. He shot Reno a very serious glance.

A little bit of guilt shot through Reno's mind again. He'd almost forgotten about Elena, one look at Ariel and he was his usual 'one track minded' self. _'Ok, from now on Reno, stick to what you're actually here for.' _He tried to get into his head. He felt like he'd better help in some way.

"Yeah we have no idea where she could be or where we're going for that matter." Reno's voice trailed off slowly. _Yeah… that helped Reno._

"Ok… well, what does she look like?" Ariel asked, sounding as if she was trying to be genuinely helpful.

Reno thought for a second to try and get the best description of Elena; which he did. "Uhh… short blonde hair, brown eyes and she's about a head shorter than me."

"Hmm," Ariel lowered her eyebrows as if in thought. Then she looked both Reno and Rude in the eyes, consecutively.

"She wouldn't be in danger… would she?" Rude asked very seriously.

"Well," Ariel continued as delicately as possible. "There _are_ jellyfish in places, sometimes sharks… but only in certain places." Reno and Rude's faces dropped a little.

"Can you help us find her?" Reno asked with a sense of urgency now.

"Follow me," she smiled, saying this a lot more cheerfully. She turned around and began to swim away from them quite fast.

Reno and Rude turned to each other and the redhead said: "I take that as a yes." Rude nodded and the two Turks started to swim after the young redheaded girl.

They'd swam quite away and Reno felt quite tired. Rude however appeared perfectly fine and Ariel didn't seem to be phased at all. She was still quite a way in front of the Turks though.

The three had passed several huge rocks covered in brightly coloured flowers. There were smaller rocks, tunnels and caves that they'd been through or seen. Reno had seen creatures he never even knew existed. But he knew one thing for certain, there was no way he could ever find his way back to where they'd started from.

Reno looked around him and saw that they were coming to a pathway with huge pillars all the way down it on either side.

"This is where we all live." Ariel said, turning around to look at the two Turks.

Reno looked around himself, as did his partner. To the left and to the right of the huge pathway were what looked like houses. Some looked like huge shells joined together, some were made from shipwrecks and others were more like caves.

"You'll meet my father soon, King Triton." She smiled.

"You're a princess?" Asked the older Turk.

"Well done Rude," said Reno sarcastically.

"Yes," Ariel laughed. "Me and my six sisters, I'm the youngest."

Reno smirked, and turned to look at Rude. Nodding his head slowly. Reno wondered if all the sisters were as beautiful as Ariel. He tried to imagine what they'd all look like and what colours they'd be wearing. He considered the hair, maybe it was a family thing?

Rude coughed loudly, pulling Reno out of his daydream. He gestured ahead of him down the pathway. Ariel had already started to swim off again quite fast.

The two followed her once again, coming to room coming leading off from the pathway. It was huge and in the centre was in fact a merman with long white hair which held a golden crown on his head. He was sat down on a throne in the centre of the circular room and was talking to what appeared to be a fire engine red lobster.

"Father." The young mermaid greeted the man.

"Ariel," the man spoke, revealing a smile just visible from among his Santa Claus like beard. "And who are your friends?" The rather intimidating man looked the two Turks up and down quite seriously. Naturally, Reno thought, he was most probably quite protective over his youngest daughter.

"This is Rude father, and Reno." Ariel said as she gestured towards the two Turks in turn.

The king's eyes narrowed. "Not meaning to be rude but can I ask as to why you're here, where you've come from?" It wasn't that he was being rude, he'd never seen the two before. Of course he'd know that they weren't from his kingdom, especially as ruler of the entire sea.

"We're looking for our friend, she's missing." Reno said to the man quite casually, no politer than he'd speak to Tseng.

"You're daughter very kindly offered to help us your highness." Added Rude.

Reno shot Rude a sarcastic glare and rolled his eyes. That was just typical of Rude, always having to be so proper about everything. Sometimes Reno felt like doing something outrageous to try and get him to loosen up a little. But what he didn't know, nothing else had seem to work. Anything Rude did by any chance find amusing, he'd managed to hide it pretty well from him thought Reno.

"I see," the king stated. "You are human, the three of you?" He asked.

"Yup." Said Reno grinning idiotically.

The king paused for a moment, as if thinking something over. Then he spoke, "Sebastian," he turned to look at the lobster and Reno tried to hide his smirk at the name. "You can accompany our visitors along with Ariel, let's see if we can't help them find their friend." He smiled politely at the Turks. "And in the mean time I'll ask the others, see if they've heard or seen anything."

"Thank you," said Rude formally.

The lobster moved from his position and joined the others. They all turned to leave before a final word from Triton. "And Ariel," he said in a serious tone, "Be careful."

"Father," she sighed, swimming off.

The group swam out of the throne room and left Triton sitting there alone. They got just outside of where all the homes were before Ariel started to speak again. "Ok, we should probably split up."

They all looked at one another. Reno looked at Rude and then to Ariel.

"I'll go with Rude," Sebastian said surprisingly. He spoke with quite a deep, Jamaican sounding accent. "I know what redheads can be like."

"Ok, then I'll pair with Reno." Said Ariel, giggling. Just as she said this a rather chubby looking fish swam up to them. It had bright blue and yellow scales. "Hey Flounder."

"Hi Ariel," the fish replied happily. He looked at Reno and Rude and then continued. "What's going on?"

"Oh, this is Reno and Rude. Me and Sebastian are going to help them. Their friend's missing."

"You know on second thought, Flounder should go with you and Reno Ariel." Sebastian added before whispering in Rude's ear, "She has a tendency to wander off and not do what she's told."

The Turk grinned, "Reno's just the same." He replied.

"So…" Reno raised his voice above the others. "I get the little fish and the hot mermaid and Rude gets a crab."

Ariel blushed. Sebastian sounded very serious now, "Flounder, keep an eye on those two, come find us if you need us." The fish nodded and Ariel rolled her eyes. Reno just grinned idiotically at Rude who shook his head in response.

They split up: Reno, Ariel and Flounder going one way and Rude and Sebastian went another.

Reno followed Ariel and Flounder on the search for Elena. As usual he paid little attention to where the girl was leading him and let his mind wander on to other things. He couldn't help to look at how beautiful she was. Her eyes sparkled and reflected the light the ripples made in the water. Her hair flowed softly across her back as she swam through the currents.

Reno was forced to pay attention when Ariel stopped suddenly in front of a large rock tunnel. Reno looked into the hole and felt a light pressure of water against his face.

"We're going in here?" He asked the redheaded girl who nodded in reply.

"But we're swimming against the current through here, so you have to be strong."

Reno looked at her in shock. Did he look feeble or something? He all of a sudden felt incredibly scrawny and conscious of how small his tail fin was compared to the size of Rude's. And if that chubby little fish could get through, he certainly could! He decided to try and act cool, saying (in the 'manliest' voice he could manage), "well, you don't have to worry about me sweetheart."

Ariel nodded and smiled. "Ok, follow me Reno and Flounder can follow on behind."

Reno begun to swim after the woman who'd started to go into the tunnel. He felt the current pushing him back but he resisted, fighting as hard as he could.

'Let's go find Elena…' He thought to himself.

* * *

**A/N: **Another update!! I didn't get as far as I wanted with this chapter, yet again I've managed to make something I thought to be quite short pretty long. But that seemed like a good place to leave it. In the next chapter they'll be off again, finding another world to cause caos in. I hope you enjoyed this chapter, let me know what you think of the story so far! Thanks to those who've read :)


	11. Party

**Party**

Rude and Sebastian had been waiting at the palace for quite some time now. Having failed to find Elena they had little to do but sit and wait for their friends. Sit and worry that was. Rude had suggested that they went to look for them but Sebastian reassured him that it would be alright. Ariel was rebellious, but she wasn't stupid.

The Turk had made some comment about not being so sure about Reno and the two laughed. The sat for a few minutes further not saying very much to each other. In turn they'd occasionally look around to see if anyone was coming.

To their excitement there was someone, but not any of those that they were expecting. The lobster seemed to know who the young woman was. "Alana!" he greeted her cheerfully, waving his huge front claw.

"Sebastian," the girl smiled as she swam closer.

The young woman looked quite similar to Ariel except with short brown hair. Her tail fin was a lilac colour and her top was baby pink. "Where's Ariel?"

"She's out with a friend of ours, it's a long story." Explained Sebastian.

The mermaid looked slightly confused so Sebastian carried on talking. "This is Rude by the way," Rude with his usual formalities put his hand out to the young woman who accepted it with a smile.

"It's nice to meet you Rude," she said as she let go of his hand. "Sebastian, would you help us with a few things? We're setting up for the show tonight, you can explain about Ariel on the way." She continued sounding a little rushed.

Sebastian nodded and as soon as he did Alana shot off again as fast as she'd arrived. They swam through the merpeople's homes and into Triton's palace. Sebastian explained where Ariel and Reno most likely were. Rude let out that he thought Reno had taken quite an interest in the mermaid's young sister. This lead Alana to explain a little something about the reason they were putting on the show.

The swam into a huge hall, a theatre, shaped like a semicircle with a stage lower down at the front. Rude looked around himself, the roof of the hall was being supported by huge stone columns, just like the ones in Triton's throne room.

Five other mermaids were swimming about the area frantically. Triton's daughter's, Rude has discovered who were putting up banners, arranging underwater plants and setting up the stage.

As one seemed to notice Rude, the others turned to look at him in turn. Alana and Sebastian took the job of introducing him to the remaining five princesses that were still strangers.

"Hello Rude, I'm Adella," she put her hand out smiling and Rude swam over to accept it.

"Arista."

"Attina."

"Aquatta."

"Andrina," the fifth said finally.

Not even Tseng could manage to remember all of those names. To add to it, the girls somehow seemed to look exactly the same, yet completely different. They all wore different brightly coloured outfits and beautiful looking shells and things in their hair. The colours of the girls hair ranged from darkest black to the lightest sunshine blond but none like Ariel's. Another thing Rude had noticed was that they all had either blue or green eyes, but once again not like Ariel's.

The girls were obviously quite busy so Sebastian asked if they could help out. However they seemed to have everything covered except for one thing. Alana, who had taken the role of leadership, asked the two of them to find Ariel and make sure that she arrived at the show at the right time.

Rude had been told fully about everything that was going on in regards to the show that night. It was important that nothing spoiled the surprise for Ariel. Sebastian and Rude went off again in search for Reno and the mermaid.

* * *

It seemed to Reno that him and Ariel had searched everywhere they possibly could have to find Elena. It had been a few hours at least, even though Reno had no way of telling. They'd even gone into the darkest parts of the ocean, into caves that hadn't seen life in a few years Reno had guessed. But it was darkening now, so the two finally decided to head back.

So Reno and the mermaid made their way back to the palace, where Rude and Sebastian were ready waiting for them.

"Ariel!" shouted Sebastian, a little too loudly next to Rude's ear. The four all looked at each other as the redheaded party swam closer. They all knew what needed to be said, but the words seemed to take a while to come out.

"Anything?" Reno asked sighing, knowing full well what his answer was going to be. Rude shook his head. "Nah… same here…" The two Turks looked at each other and exchanged a sympathetic smile. Then there was silence for a few moments.

"It wont be long before it begins to get dark guys," Ariel said.

Just then Sebastian coughed and said, "that reminds me, Rude here was just telling me that he'd love to see around the palace itself, I've been telling him all about the history."

"You guys -were- looking for Elena weren't you?" Reno said very seriously. He didn't think for one minute that Rude wouldn't do the job properly or get distracted at all. So what the hell was he doing asking for the grand tour?

"Reno," Rude said in his sighing voice. Reno knew that what his partner really meant was: 'shut up kid, don't be stupid.' So he dropped it. Rude and himself had over the years developed a way of communicating that was far beyond the need for words.

"Maybe you could spend the night? Rest up before you move on." Reno smirked almost instantly when the mermaid uttered the words 'spend the night'. Then, in the general direction of Rude he inaudibly mouthed the words: 'she so wants me.' And pointed to himself looking and feeling very smug.

"Ok then, sounds like a good idea." Reno replied purposely and directly to Ariel. Rude merely nodded.

"Well then, why don't we take them around the palace and show them where they'll be staying?" Sebastian added in. Ariel nodded and started to swim away. Sebastian, Rude and Reno followed on behind her.

Their tour of the castle lasted probably about three quarters of an hour Reno guessed. The place was absolutely huge, there was no way they'd be able to get around all of it properly in a hurry. During the tour Reno had noticed something. Sebastian had kept asking everybody what time they thought it was and he'd often caught Rude had kept grinning at him.

Sebastian's constant questioning had made Reno slightly curious but it was Rude who made him more suspicious. He felt like he was being laughed at. But he shook it off quickly enough, his mind was too focused on the young mermaid. Reno couldn't help it, there was just something about her.

The group decided ,shortly after seeing where Reno and Rude would be staying that night, that they should head over to the dining room for dinner.

Reno was slightly downhearted by the fact that he would be sharing a room with Rude that evening. The young redheaded girl would have by far been his first choice. Oh well, at least he didn't have to share a bed with the Turk.

They arrived at the dining room only to discover that it was empty. Ariel looked extremely puzzled by this. "Where is everybody?" She asked, more aimed at Sebastian than the others.

"I uh… don't know Ariel" He said slowly. It was at this moment that Reno noticed the large door at the other end of the room open ever so slightly.

All of a sudden another young mermaid burst through the door. She had long raven black hair and was wearing a cerise coloured shell top, matching her tail fin. She looked older but was a lot shorter than Ariel was.

"Attina?" Ariel said questioningly.

Before anything else was said, the mermaid grabbed her sister by the wrist and pulled her out of the room. Reno rolled his eyes and sighed, for the last couple of minutes he'd been building up the courage to put a little proposal to Ariel. Now of course she'd just been stolen by her elder sister.

"Come on you two, we need to follow them." Sebastian waved his claw, gesturing the Turks to follow on behind him. He himself swam off moving his claws through the water at an extremely fast pace. Reno and Rude both managed to catch up with him pretty quickly though.

Reno followed Sebastian and Rude to the theatre hall. Strangely, Rude gave the impression of knowing where he was going as he was swimming almost in line with Sebastian. Reno wondered what the hell was going on.

When Reno swam around a pillar he saw that the whole hall was filled with merpeople and there were huge crimson curtains covering the stage. Ariel was sitting down by the front of the stage surrounded by empty seats. One of Ariel's sisters put her head through the curtains and told the waiting crowd that whatever was coming would begin in about 10 minutes time. Reno took this opportunity to use to his advantage.

"Right, now's my chance, I'm going over so wait here." Reno whispered to Sebastian and Rude with particular emphasis on the words 'so wait here'. They watched as he swam over to Ariel and sat down next to her.

"Where's he going?" Sebastian asked Rude.

"He's going to ask her… well, you know." Rude said trying not to smirk. Because of course Ariel's sisters had told him something that Reno didn't yet know.

"Oh dear," said replied Sebastian. "Is Reno used to being rejected?" He laughed.

"He's stubborn and proud, he doesn't like not getting what he wants." Rude added. All of a sudden Reno stood up and swam back over to them. "He'll probably be pretty embarrassed."

Reno's head was pretty low and didn't look the other two in the eye. Rude was right of course. Reno had been rejected and he felt like a right idiot after some of the things he'd just said to her. So he decided he wasn't going to mention it to the other two. "Suppose we should go sit down." He said glumly.

"Yeah, we'll go sit with Ariel," said Sebastian cheerfully much to Reno's dislike.

* * *

So it turned out that Ariel was leaving in a few days time to go and live on the surface. Apparently she was engaged to some guy called Eric and her family and friends wanted to put on a farewell show for her.

It was really good. Reno actually enjoyed listening to her sisters sing and watching them dance. He managed to calm himself down a little until after the show when they were having dinner with the family.

"Rude!," one of the mermaid's sisters came over to talk to Turk. "Thanks for your help earlier, did you like the show?" Reno waited until his partner was done talking to the girl and then went over to Rude.

"You knew!!" He whispered sternly. Rude nodded. "I made a complete idiot out of myself for nothing."

"So she did reject you?" Rude grinned. Finally something had put Reno in his place.

"Shut up Rude." Said Reno putting on his childish pouting face again.

* * *

Reno woke the next morning after the dinner to find that Rude was already up as usual.

"She's not that great anyway." He said. Rude turned his head to look the redhead in the eyes. "It wouldn't have worked out." Rude just rolled his eyes. "I mean, you can't have two redheads. I'm the only redhead allowed." Continued Reno, still trying to justify his rejection.

"Yes Reno…" Replied Rude. "We should probably get going soon you know."

And there it was again. The reminder of Elena. They were not really any nearer to finding her and once again this was all Reno's fault. Well, they'd narrowed it down by one world at least and Reno had had a really unique experience. He couldn't help himself messing around, it was in his nature. He didn't want to accept that they were probably in real trouble… but if they didn't find Elena they definitely would be. He was once again temporarily ready to take the situation seriously.

"Yeah…," he finally said. "Let's go."

* * *

**A/N: **Ok, Well I hope you liked that chapter. Once again it's taken me quite a while to update. I kept doing little bits at a time and coming back to it. Then I got the urge to finish it tonight so there it is. And for those if you who are interested and are a Johnny Depp fan, Jack Sparrow will most probably be in the next chapter!


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